Marvin Rainwater

Marvin Rainwater, a country vocalist of one-quarter Cherokee ancestry, openly capitalized on his Native American roots to gain traction across the country circuit. Yet the foundation beneath those efforts consisted of substantial recordings from a performer comfortable navigating numerous genres. In country music, scarcely anyone produced work as eccentric or outright unusual as Rainwater’s. Anchored by his robust, resonant baritone, his discography revealed equal command of Western ballads, sugary pop numbers, and daring, high-energy excursions into rockabilly.

Born Marvin Percy Rainwater in 1925, he served in the Navy during World War II as a pharmacist’s mate before committing to music professionally. Originally a classically trained pianist, an injury that cost him part of his right thumb prompted a shift to country, where he quickly mastered guitar enough to support his vocals and write material. After settling in Virginia, he became a regular on the Washington, D.C. honky-tonk scene, fronting an early band that included guitarist Roy Clark and featured Rainwater himself in buckskin jacket and Indian headband. His initial sessions occurred under Bill McCall at 4-Star Records. Viewing himself primarily as a songwriter, Rainwater partnered with Ben Adelman, who operated a modest studio; several demos intended for other artists through their publishing companies were instead hastily overdubbed and issued during Rainwater’s peak popularity on low-budget imprints such as Crown.

McCall also forwarded three finished masters—“I Gotta Go Get My Baby,” “Hearts’ Hall of Fame,” and “Albino Stallion”—to Coral Records on a promotional custom 45. Teresa Brewer promptly covered “I Gotta Go Get My Baby” and scored a pop hit with it. Real momentum arrived via a winning appearance on Arthur Godfrey’s Talent Scouts, the early-1950s talent showcase. Godfrey’s popular morning program followed, and Rainwater became a frequent guest, exposing him to a nationwide audience. In response he cut “Tea Bag Romeo,” a tribute to Godfrey that alluded to the host’s Lipton Tea sponsorship. By late 1955 Rainwater had joined Red Foley’s Ozark Jubilee as a regular, relocating to Springfield, Missouri. Backstage on one tour he met a young Brenda Lee Tarpley, heard her sing, and introduced her to Foley, launching her career.

After aligning with Foley, Rainwater began recording for MGM, his longest association. The sessions veered unpredictably: somber Americana recitations such as “Pink Eyed Stallion” appeared beside novelty items like “Tennessee Hound Dog Yodel,” themselves flipsides to straightforward country laments. In March 1956 he pivoted toward rockabilly, producing the manic “Hot and Cold” paired with the somewhat milder “Mr. Blues.” Although both tracks generated attention, they alienated portions of his country following. Still, rockabilly offered a route to pop success, and “Gonna Find Me a Bluebird” delivered it, reaching number three on the country chart and number eighteen pop. Flush with momentum, Rainwater left the Ozark Jubilee for New York City. Subsequent releases remained as eclectic as before—one featured a duet with Connie Francis—and a string of poor business decisions hastened his chart decline. To sustain visibility he maintained an exhausting live schedule. By 1961 his voice, ravaged by constant performances, proved unusable at final MGM dates; those masters stayed unreleased and largely vanished. As Rainwater later recalled, “I had no voice and no money.”

Following a nine-month hiatus he joined Warwick Records and, backed by Link Wray and the Raymen, issued two singles comparable to his strongest earlier work, though neither pop nor country audiences paid much heed. In 1963 Rainwater and partner Bill Guess constructed a studio in Chicago and launched Brave Records, whose catalog centered on the singer’s new compositions. Brief affiliations with United Artists in 1964 and Warner Bros. in 1969 aside, he remained with Brave into the early 1980s, after which he recorded a few sides for Okie Records. Those Okie releases marked his final commercial output. Apart from occasional European rockabilly revival appearances, Rainwater resided quietly in northern Minnesota until his death from heart failure in Minneapolis on September 17, 2013, at age 88.